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"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Einstein

Ann Wright, a former US diplomat and the highest ranking member of the US military to resign over the Iraq war, has cautioned against Ireland getting involved in Nato.

Ms Wright was special guest at a joint Irish Anti-War Movement/ Peace and Neutrality Alliance meeting in Dublin yesterday. She is most noted for having been one of three state department officials to publicly resign in protest at the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

“I would urge the citizens of Ireland to really push back on this attempt to get Ireland as a part of the Nato forces. We have seen what has happened in Afghanistan and the numbers of Afghans that have been killed in by military operations,” said Ms Wright.

Ms Wright praised Ireland’s record of neutrality but warned it was now being “shopped around” by Nato. “They are trying to get Ireland to join up with them .The secretary general of Nato, Rasmussen, is here today to try and convince the Irish Government to join up with Nato,” she said.

Slippery slope

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on a visit to Dublin this week, encouraged Ireland to get involved in more Nato projects and to develop its defence forces. Ms Wright described any involvement of Ireland with Nato as a “slippery slope”.

“It’s a much different road than working with UN forces doing peace keeping operations in Lebanon, [as] Ireland has done for a long time.”

Irish extraordinary rendition role

Sir, – Ann Marie Hourihane is to be commended for her piece (Opinion, February 11th) about the recent report on the US extraordinary rendition programme and Ireland’s shameful involvement in that programme.

It is disgraceful that no Government minister has taken time to respond to the report and, unfortunately, I do not expect that situation to change any time soon. Indeed, my fear is that the present Government is far more likely to respond to the overtures of the US-led Nato military alliance, as reported on your World News pages the same day. – Yours, etc,

HARRY McCAULEY,

Maynooth,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – It is to be hoped that Ann Marie Hourihane’s scathing article on the deafening silence surrounding rendition (Opinion, February 11th) will elicit some positive reaction from our Government and particularly from our Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Ireland’s tacit support for the shameful and outrageous practice of torture and rendition is well known. The Government is well aware of the many times over the past decade that rendition aircraft used Shannon airport. There is a dedicated group of human rights observers in Limerick who have painstakingly documented the rendition planes arrivals and departures. They have regularly requested the gardaí at Shannon airport to search those planes, but that has never been done, even though the Garda Síochána has a perfect right to do so. There was a time when Ireland acted honourably in relation to foreign policy, but it seems we no longer believe in obeying international law.

Sir, – The news that the government facilitated CIA rendition flights should come as no surprise to anybody (Home News, February 6th).

It does, however, serve as a reminder of the shamefully sycophantic attitude that successive governments here have had and still have in relation to dealings with the US regarding foreign policy. Nothing shall be allowed to undermine potential inward investment from US corporations – not even the possibility that alleged suspects, illegally kidnapped and brought to torture centres, were carried through our air space. It seems there is a price for human rights after all. – Yours, etc,

Report finds Ireland facilitated illegal US rendition programme

Ireland was one of 54 countries that helped facilitate the CIA’s secret detention, rendition and interrogation programme in the years after the 9/11 attacks, according to a new report.

The report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a human rights advocacy group, said foreign governments aided the US counterterrorism offensive in various ways including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; permitting the use of domestic airspace and airports for secret flights transporting detainees.

Its Globalising Torture report identified 136 people who had been held or transferred illegally by the CIA, the largest list compiled to date.

It also provided new information about the CIA’s handling of both al-Qaeda suspects and innocent people caught up in its global counterterrorism network.

The report said Ireland permitted the use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.

Its evidence against Ireland was based on a number of sources including three high-level reports from the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the United Nations, which expressed concern about the country’s “alleged co-operation” in the CIA rendition programme.

It also cited documents from a legal case brought by extraordinary rendition victims against Jeppesen Dataplan, a company that provided flight planning and logistical support services for CIA extraordinary rendition flights, and which indicated that Ireland allowed use of its airspace and Shannon airport for CIA rendition flights.

Ireland was one of 54 countries which helped facilitate the CIA's secret detention, rendition and interrogation programme in the years after the 9/11 attacks, according a new report.

The report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a human rights advocacy group, said foreign governments aided the US’s counterterrorism offensive in various ways including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing, and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; permitting the use of domestic airspace and airports for secret flights transporting detainees.

Its Globalising Torture report identified 136 people who had been held or transferred illegally by the CIA, the largest list compiled to date.

It also provided new information about the handling of both al-Qaeda suspects and innocent people caught up in the counterterrorism programme.

The report said Ireland permitted the use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.

Its evidence against Ireland was based on a number of sources including three high-level reports from the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the United Nations which expressed concern about the country’s "alleged co-operation" in the CIA rendition program.

It also cited documents from a legal case brought by extraordinary rendition victims against Jeppesen Dataplan, a company that provided flight planning and logistical support services for CIA extraordinary rendition flights, and which indicated that Ireland allowed use of its airspace and use of Shannon airport for CIA rendition flights.

US court records from another case involving Richmor Aviation, a company that operated CIA extraordinary rendition flights, also show that at least 13 flights operated by Richmor involving US personnel landed in Ireland between 2002 and 2004.

Shannon Airport has landed in a moral quagmire

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

On behalf of the justice and peace organisation, Afri, I am revulsed at comments by the head of the Shannon Airport Authority, Rose Hynes, to an Oireachtas committee, as reported in the Irish Examiner.

When asked about Shannon’s reliance on military traffic, Ms Hynes said: “Military traffic has been in the DNA of Shannon for many years.

It is something that is important, it’s lucrative, and we are certainly going to go after it as much as possible.”

I am appalled at Ms Hynes’ failure to consider the moral challenges of such ‘lucrative’ business. Evidence from Amnesty International shows 50 landings at Shannon of aircraft involved in rendition/torture up until 2005, with further cases since recorded by the NGO Shannonwatch. Is Ms Hynes saying collusion with torture and killing is part of Shannon’s DNA?

Shannonwatch records show that an average of three US military or military-contracted flights per day go through Shannon Airport, carrying troops and weapons, including to Iraq for the last ten years when a million people have been slaughtered. This is in addition to half a million people killed in Afghanistan, another war facilitated by Shannon.